TikTok will be removed from U.S. app stores Sunday as the Supreme Court greenlit Friday the federal law banning the app unless it separates from ByteDance, likely shutting down the app in the U.S.—though it remains to be seen what will happen after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated Monday.
Content creators Sarah Baus, left, and Tiffany Cianci livestream to TikTok outside the Supreme Court ... [+]
Justices issued an unsigned opinion upholding a lower court’s ruling in favor of the federal ban on the app, arguing the law does not violate TikTok and its users’ First Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week over the legality of the federal law, which bans TikTok unless Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance divests from the platform, as TikTok and content creators on the app opposed the law and argued it violated their First Amendment rights.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
32%. That’s the share of U.S. adults who support the federal government banning TikTok, according to a Pew Research poll conducted in July and August, while 28% oppose it and 39% are unsure. Support for a TikTok ban has steadily declined, as Pew notes the 32% now backing a TikTok ban is down from 50% who supported it in March 2023 and 38% in fall 2023.
The law targeting TikTok was enacted in April following longstanding concerns about the app and its ties to China from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. TikTok has long denied any links to the Chinese government or any wrongdoing, though Forbes has reported on numerous concerns regarding the app, including TikTok spying on journalists, hosting accounts that promoted Chinese propaganda and criticized U.S. politicians, mishandling user data and tracking “sensitive” words. While the law has been enacted for months, the ban became closer to reality in December, when a federal appeals court shut down lawsuits brought by TikTok and content creators on the app, upholding the federal law. The panel of appeals judges ruled the government’s national security concerns justified the ban and the law did not infringe on TikTok and its users’ First Amendment rights, as all content on the app would still be available if the company just separated from ByteDance. TikTok then went to the Supreme Court after the appeals court also ruled against temporarily pausing the law from taking effect, and justices took up the case quickly after, scheduling the case for oral arguments on a timeline that would allow the court to rule before the law could take effect.
TikTok users fearing an impending ban on the app have started flocking to the app “Red Note” in recent days, catapulting the app to the top of Apple’s app store as it’s become a primary alternative to TikTok. The switch to the app runs contrary to the federal government’s fears about Chinese influence on TikTok, as Red Note is a Chinese-owned app, and The New York Times reports users are gravitating toward the app as a signal to lawmakers that they do not share the government’s concerns about Chinese influence.